Dear Editor,
It was a beautiful sunny Saturday, the last day of Amerindian Heritage Celebrations, last year, in my village where the day’s cultural events were taking place.
About midday, I went to accompany a driver to a nearby village to drop off a head teacher where we stayed at the village’s heritage celebrations until it was time for us to pick up some colleagues of mine to have dinner in my village (heritage site).
It was around 22:20 hours when we reached. The venue was already heavily crowded as usual when it is the last day of the celebration. As I followed my colleagues in the crowd, a woman held my hand and stopped me as they disappeared in front of me.
“Excuse me Sir Guy, you know the girl who, you and you coworker came to, a few months ago, when she was raped?”
“Yes, you mean ‘Anita Marco’? (Not her name). What about her?”
“She just die a few minutes ago at the hospital”.
“What!? How!?”
“I don’t know the details but just got that message”.
I kept staring at the woman in shock.
“It’s true sir”.
The planned dinner, due to instant death of my inner being, went off my mind immediately. It was as if I had been elevated on a cliff of sadness, oblivious of the people who were celebrating. It was only a week before I spoke to the girl when I visited her at her school.
Still not believing my ears, I fought myself whole night for sleep. I woke up about one o’clock and headed to Anita’s house, still in an indistinct state of mind which was only cleared when I saw people gathered in her yard.
I had lost a young ‘daughter’, fifteen years old, who I had helped through, together with my colleague, from her previous horrible incident (raped) which my colleague described as if from a ‘deep tunnel.’
It was during that evening, I learnt of her alleged perpetrator (school teacher) who first met her at a city’s ice cream place where he insisted on paying for her ice cream and her small sister’s. This meeting was about a year prior to her transfer to the school where the alleged perpetrator was a teacher. It was at that school also that I met the already victim.
Subsequent to her death, some of her school colleagues and friends emotionally shared their last moments with her during that wonderful Saturday morning at the school whilst waiting on a teacher who had planned to meet them. They had planned to meet at the Heritage celebrations’ last evening in the village. She had indicated to them that she had planned to go shopping with the suspect to buy a pair of jeans. She also shared, according to her friends, her fascination with marrying him and having a wonderful life.
According to them, about midday, the suspect picked her up and took her away to shop which was confirmed by her relatives who had the evidence (a pair of jeans) in her possession. That relative also informed the writer that when the suspect dropped her home about 14:30 hours that Saturday afternoon, they stayed in the vehicle for about 30 to 45 minutes. When the victim finally came out, the relative observed her to be stressed and she seemed to have been crying from observing her eyes. According to the relative, she went straight to a back house and went to sleep in the main building.
Subsequently also, there were persons who indicated having knowledge of the alleged relationship but having never reported it which was too late to save that child from her unfortunate demise.
At Anita’s funeral, the writer emotionally uttered these words to the effect that “We will not have a bright future if we continue to destroy our young lives”. Translation of that is that there are so many abused children today, especially the young under-aged girls who are left to suffer psychologically for the rest of their lives, as was recently reported by the Child Care and Protection Agency on their findings in Region Seven, whilst the suspects go free into hiding in the mines or neighbouring countries.
This scenario is shared because there are a lot of unanswered questions as to why, where or how we let our societal norms fall down.
Are our village leaders, our parents, our grandparents, uncles, our educators, our police, our soldiers, our regional officers, our John Public familiar with the laws that protect our children or themselves?
Due to the above burning question, it is necessary, therefore, to share some of the clauses from the sexual offences acts of the Guyana’s law in an effort to eliminate this horrible mental illness that has over whelmed our societies.
Guyana’s Sexual Offences Act states the following:
Section 2. (Part I)
Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires interpretation.
“Adult” means a person of or over the age of eighteen years;
“Child” means a person under the age of eighteen years;
Section 9 (Sexual Offences Act Part IV)
Sexual Grooming of Child
(1) An adult commits an offence if-
(a) Having met or communicated with a child on at least two earlier occasions, he or she-
(i) Intentionally meets the child; or
(ii) Travels with the intention of meeting the child in any part of the world;
(b) The child is under the age of sixteen years; and
(c) At the time of the meeting or travel, he or she-
(i) Intends to do anything to or in respect of the child, during or after the meeting, in any part of the world, which, if the act were done in Jamaica, would amount to the commission by any person of a sexual offence under this Act; and
(ii) Does not reasonably believe that the child is of or over the age of sixteen years.
(2) An adult commits an offence if he or she causes another person to carry out the offence specified in subsection (1).
(3) In subsection (I), the reference to the adult having met or communicated with the child is a reference to the adult having met the child in any part of the world or having communicated with the child by any means from, to or in any part of the world.
(4) A person who commits an offence under this section is liable on conviction in a Circuit Court, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fifteen years.
Section10
Sexual Intercourse with person under sixteen
(1) Subject to subsection (3), a person who has sexual intercourse with another person who is under the age of sixteen years commits an offence.
(2) Any person who attempts to have sexual intercourse with any person under the age of sixteen years commits an offence.
(4) Where the person charged with an offence under sub- section (1) is an adult in authority, then, he or she is liable upon conviction in a Circuit Court to imprisonment for life, or such other term as the Court considers appropriate, nothing less than fifteen years, and the Court may, where the person so convicted has authority or guardianship over the child concerned exercise it like powers as under section 7(7).
(6) In this section, “adult in authority” means an adult who—
(a) Is in a position of trust or authority in relation to a child;
(b) Is a person with whom a child is in a relationship of dependency; or
(c) Stands in loco parentis (in the place of a parent)to a child.
Section 11
Householder, etc.., inducing or encouraging violation of child under sixteen
A person commits an offence who, being the owner or occupier of any premises, or having, or acting or assisting in, the management or control thereof, induces or knowingly allows any child under the age of sixteen years to resort to or be in or upon such premises for the purpose of-
Having sexual intercourse with any man or woman; or
(b) Engaging in any act with any man or woman that constitutes grievous sexual assault upon the child.
The above sections are highlighted here due to the fact that most cases of child sexual abuse, including ‘Anita’s’ scenario (sexual grooming of child), are caused by the offences mentioned.
Let’s hope that we, adults, particularly the parents, and children, become enlightened and knowledgeable of our laws, by us continue studying them, that are there to protects us and become civilized towards our female counterparts.
Knowledge is a light through whose guidance we can walk out from the darkness of ignorance.
Yours faithfully,
Guy Marco
